Mission and History
Mission Statement
The University of Alaska Museum of the North, located on the Fairbanks campus, is
the only museum in the state with a tripartite mission of research, teaching, and
collecting. The museum’s botanical, geological, zoological, and cultural collections,
primarily from Alaska and the Circumpolar North, form the basis for understanding
the local as well as the global past, present, and future. Through collection-based
research, teaching, and public programs, the Museum shares its knowledge and collections
with local, national, and international audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
(Approved February 28, 2007)
Museum History
The University of Alaska Museum has been around since the earliest days of the University
of Alaska. In 1926, at University President Charles Bunnell’s request, local naturalist
Otto Geist traveled throughout Alaska collecting ethnographic and archeological artifacts.
In 1929, the Museum invited the public to celebrate its grand opening, displaying
Geist's acquisitions and the University’s small painting collection. These items were
the University of Alaska Museum's first northern treasures.
After statehood, the Museum's growth followed waves of rapidly changing times in
Alaska. In 1961, the federally created Alaska Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit at
the University transferred its mammal, bird, and plant collections to the Museum.
In 1970, the Museum acquired existing fish and marine invertebrates collections, as
well as the Institute of Northern Forestry’s plant collection from the U.S. Forest
Service. After the 1970s pipeline boom, money flowed into the Museum to expand and
diversify its art and ethnology collections. In the 1980s, federal and state resource
management legislation prompted the collection of new natural and cultural history
material from across Alaska. In 1991, the Museum created the Alaska Frozen Tissue
Collection, a regional collection of zoological materials supported by the National
Science Foundation, the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service, and others. In 1993, in compliance with the Native American Graves and Repatriation
Act, the Museum began the process of returning human remains and other sensitive items
from the Museum’s archeology collection to Alaska Native villages across the state.
For more than 50 years, the Museum made its home on the University’s lower campus,
first on the top floor of the Eielson Building and then in Signers' Hall. In 1976,
the Friends of the University of Alaska Museum organized and actively petitioned Alaska
Governor Jay Hammond and the Legislature to appropriate funds for a new museum. With
their support, the current building opened in 1980. It was a bold architectural statement
for its time and was expected to be the first phase of a larger structure.
That larger structure opened in 2005, with a new wing doubling the size of the facilities
to 83,000 sq.ft. Designed by architect Joan Soranno and the GDM/HGA team, the signature
architecture of the new wing evokes images of glaciers, a diving whale's tail, the
prow of a ship, and other Alaska themes. Inside, expanded and renovated research labs,
exhibit galleries and educational facilities serve all aspects of the museum's mission.
Today, the Museum is the premier repository for artifacts and specimens collected
on state and federal lands in Alaska and a leader in northern natural and cultural
history research and education.